THE SON OF A PREACHER MAN WAS MY GUARDIAN ANGEL   5/5/10

It was October 1979 and a group of lifeline counsellors headed for the big city of Melbourne for a convention. I was a country girl and this was an exciting adventure for me.

The workshops were mainly held at the Melbourne University and were attended by several highly regarded religious leaders, some from the USA. There was a cross section of workshops to choose from,  from healthy lifestyle to counselling skills to meditation. One of the sessions I chose was on meditation. An exercise was explained to the class where they were to imagine climbing a mountain, and half way up that mountain they would meet someone (it could be whoever each individual chose it to be). I met a wise man – He was like God or Moses….. I took it to be God. He was old and wise with a long white beard….. go figure!!! We had to ask the person a question which was important to us. My question was “what happens when we die?” I can still hear the voice in my ear of that wise man when he said “I love you, how could I hurt you?”

Then the person was to give us a gift. We had to feel the gift, picture it and then take it back down the mountain where all the participants broke into groups and we shared our experiences. My gift was a scroll upon which was written the poem “Desiderata”… in particular the first and last part which includes the words “go placidly amid the noise and haste………and no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should…….” I remember some of the other gifts included a rock and a butterfly. Everyone really enjoyed the session. I was on a high. I was so “full” of myself, I began to interpret everyone else's gifts.

There was a very handsome Baptist minister, all dressed in white with a big cross around his neck. I was sure that he and I would dance at the social that night. The time for the social arrived and the Baptist minister didn’t know I existed. I sat to the side of the room quietly sobbing. I remember everything was going really fast.

That’s when I looked up and a young man was sitting beside me with his arm around me, wanting to console me. I looked at him through the tears and said “you’re a pisces” and he said “no I’m a cancer” which is what I am. He wanted me to go with him for coffee but my friends were concerned as I was (after all) just a country girl and this was the big city. I didn’t know him. Still – despite their warnings about the danger of what I was about to do, I went with him.

We caught a taxi and I remember it took a long time to get to his unit. I can’t remember his name, only that he had shiny black shoes, he suffered from epilepsy which is why he wasn’t driving. His father was a minister and he had been at a social occasion next door to the hall where my gathering was being held. He didn’t really know why he had come inside but he had seen me crying and came to help.

Neither of us could understand the chemistry between us yet still we continued going somewhere – we didn’t know where this was taking us. When we walked in the door of his place, the first thing I saw was a huge poster, just inside the door. It was Desiderata. We discovered things in common like instruments we both played – piano accordion and keyboards. There were symbols everywhere – rocks, butterflies. I believed this was meant to be.

He stood apart from me and looked at me, saying “what do we do now?” He told me he had taken a vow of celibacy and really didn’t know why he was going down this track. That didn’t stop the sparks and the magic of what happened between us that night. I don’t remember a huge amount of what he told me that night as I believe I did most of the talking. I remember that he worked for the Department of Social Security and had an ambition to one day be Prime Minister. We were young. I was 25 years old.

The next morning he gave me a book. It was about Love – not the possessive love that often occurs in relationships, but a Love like that of God which is giving and that would let someone go because of love. That is unconditional love. Thirty two years later I am still on the path to learning about that Love.

When I think back on the experience with the wisdom (or not) of hindsight, I believe this was an archetypal experience. We were soul mates. How uncanny that he would play the piano accordion just like me and that we would both share the same star sign. The other point that stands out to me is that he insisted he had taken a vow of celibacy yet he broke that. Interestingly the next morning he badly wanted me to have a book about unconditional love which is (really) what we've all come to this earth plane to learn about.

The next morning he accompanied me back to my friends. I remember showing him a pair of shoes in a shop window. They were crimson. Shoes seem to feature in my “highs”. Ironically, my friends turned their backs on me. These were the friends who prided themselves in being telephone counsellors, yet they showed no compassion to me after what I had done.

At some point I made it my business to track down the Archbishop of the Anglican church from the USA. It was like something out of the Bible. He was walking in the gardens of the university. I walked with him and told him the story of the night before. I was concerned about my husband and child back in Tasmania. The Archbishop advised me not to tell about my adventure the night before. He even said “sleep with your husband and if you're pregnant he need not know”..... Yes this is true. That is what a man of the cloth advised me to do.

But ….. I cannot lie. When I arrived home, I told my husband straight away. He knew I was hyper manic and took me straight to hospital.

Hyper manic or not (I certainly had been high over those few days), it doesn't change what happened. Desiderata has remained with me all these years and (for some reason I can't explain) John Denver suddenly became all important to me. I don't understand why.

In 2001, after moving to Queensland and surrendering my life to the Universe, I went to a tarot reader. I cannot remember what she told me except for one thing - at the end of the reading she stood up and pointed dramatically at a card. She said "you are going to meet your soul mate! You met him 22 years ago!!" ......... that would make it 1979........... 

to be continued............